Ether Drive

[Sebastian Thorndike]

Unlikean Imperial Warp-Drive, which allows a starship to fully enter and navigate through the Warp to achieve apparent superluminal speeds and reduced travel times in realspace, the T'au Ether Drive only allows a starship to make a brief "dive" into Warpspace.

While a T'au starship outfitted with an Ether Drive can still achieve apparent superluminal velocities from the perspective of realspace, interstellar travel using this technology is far slower than conventional Warp travel.

Despite the T'au's lack of psykers, and their complete ignorance of the true nature of the Empyrean, the Earth Caste have nevertheless developed an effective drive system that is sufficient to suit the needs of the rapidly expanding T'au Empire.

On the innermost of the world of T'au's seven moons, a routine geological survey discovered the remains of an alien vessel. The significance of the find did not disrupt T'au society as much as might have been expected.

T'au theorists had long reasoned that other intelligent life forms existed in the universe and the verification helped confirm the belief that there was a greater destiny awaiting them. No T'au commented on the sheer good fortune of finding the technology that they so desperately needed on their doorstep just when they needed it.

The T'au were able to duplicate the Warp-Drive of the alien ship but the initial test flights were disastrous. Achieving transition to the Warp required more than technology, it required psychically-attuned minds; and the T'au species boasted no psykers.

Without psykers to guide the transition from realspace into the Warp, no amount of power could breach the dimensional barriers. The best the T'au could do was make a partial transition, forcing themselves into the void that separated the Warp and realspace before they were hurled out again like a ball held under water then released.

Data gathered at great cost during the test flights was studied closely. Earth Caste scientists made the observation that the boundary between realspace and Warpspace was not a neat line. It was closer to being a turbulent ocean fomented by the tempestuous Warp tides below.

By carefully angling their "descent" toward the Warp and extending the field generated by the gravitic drive into a wing, shaped to hold the vessel down in the Empyrean tides, a T'au vessel could extend the duration of the dive considerably.

The speeds achieved in the "ascent" back to realspace were staggering and this coupled with the effect of the Warp on time and space ensured that the real distance covered by the dive was immense. Early tests lost several drone ships because they inadvertently passed far beyond the sensor range of their recovery vessels.

The details were soon resolved. There was still a major constraint on this so-called "Ether Drive," for only the most powerful (and bulky) drives could sustain the gravitic wing throughout the dive and the power drain meant that considerable recharge time was needed between dives. Also, in comparison to a starship that fully entered and navigated through the Warp using a conventional Warp-Drive, the pace of superluminal travel was very slow.

In comparison to the typical superluminal speeds achieved by Imperial voidships outfitted with Warp-Drives, the T'au Ether Drive was slower by a factor of five. The speed was consistent though, and did not expose the T'au to the myriad perils of the Warp, enabling the T'au species to expand beyond their home star system for the first time.

In earlier editions of Warhammer 40,000, all T'au starships used the Ether Drive, accounting for their slower rate of interstellar expansion and less technological sophistication with Warp-based technologies than the Imperium.

Since the introduction of the 6th Edition Codex: Tau T'au vessels have instead been propelled by the sublight ZFR Horizon Accelerator Engine. This drive does not translate the vessel into the Warp at all; instead it is capable of driving the T'au starship to velocities very close to the speed of light in realspace.

While this means that from an outside point of view a T'au vessel can take many Terran years to cross an interstellar distance, due to relativistic time dilation, its crew will experience a much shorter passage of time from their frame of reference.

The increase is a sign of a renewed influx of money into the ether market, mainly on the bullish side, as the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap added almost 19% to $3,680, according to CoinDesk data. The uptick in open interest alongside a price rise is said to confirm the uptrend.

Late Monday, Bloomberg's ETF analysts increased the probability of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) green lighting the spot ETH ETFs to 75% from 25%. Meanwhile, CoinDesk reported that the SEC had asked exchanges looking to list and trade potential spot ether ETFs to update 19b-4 filings on an accelerated basis, a sign of the regulator attempting to fast-track the process.

The regulator is scheduled to make a decision on the VanEck spot ether ETF on May 23. The SEC must approve the 19b-4 filings and the S-1 registration statements for ether ETFs to commence trading on stock exchanges.

The beginning of the Toward Stars Era (Toward Stars 1[5]) is said to be marked by the arrival of an asteroid. The asteroid crashed in Arashan Desert located in Northern China.[6] Scientists who studied the asteroid later dubbed it "dragonite". The properties of the unique and rare mineral became integral to faster-than-light travel when the scientists discovered the dragonite released energy from a inexhaustible ether (a type of warp space).[7]

Desperate to get their hands on more dragonite, every capital in the world provided enormous funds to aid in obtaining it. Doctor Sam Kaseinpow, an ether physicist and the Chosong Science Company, led by Hata Ike, worked to build the first Munchausen Drive.[6] With the development of the Munchausen Drive underway, humanity bled their way into the reaches of space beyond the Solar System in search of more dragonite[6][3], their travels likely bringing them into contact with other species that inhabit the galaxy, with established religions, lifestyles, attitudes and solar systems of their own. The event was likened to the "Gold Rush" of the 19th and 20th centuries.[7]

However, with the expansion into space with the use of a sub-ether drive, there came familiar problems common on planet-bound environments. Individuals who considered themselves free and unbound by the law began to congregate within space and establish organizations and factions to facilitate criminal activity and personal gain.[3] Pirates of the age of sailing were reborn again in Space pirates; thieves, outlaws, assassins and bounty hunters followed suit, preying on any opportunity or developing colonies and frontiersmen in the frontier of space.[3][7]

In order to prevent space from becoming outright lawlessness, the governments of Earth established the Earth Federation. Said federation was separated into four empires: USAA, Einhorn, Pitor and Tempa. However, their unity wasn't as effective as hoped. The empires fought among themselves and smaller, more fractured groups within the politically unstable landscape, in a vie for complete dominance.[7]

Space Forces were established to curtail the activities of the more prominent criminal factions, the space pirates. However, the Space Forces' effectiveness against space pirates appeared minimal, as pirate attacks continued to grow across the frontier. When the Chinese space pirates began to use EVA craft equipment, such as grappler arms, in combat, the use of grappler arms quickly became the norm in space combat and the Space Forces were forced adapt to the ever-changing landscape with grappler ships of their own.[8]

The emergence of outlaws, who adopted an attitude of neutrality in regards to the Space Forces and space pirate factions, became a perplexing problem as their activities were varied and depended largely on the motivation of the individual calling themselves "outlaws".[3] All three powers --- outlaw, space pirate and Space Forces --- however, are prone to power struggles within their own groups and thus loyalty among either powers is a rarity.[7]

Humankind gradually adapted to life in space as the Toward Stars Era progressed. Planets were terraformed to match Earth conditions or something similar and new systems were discovered and named. Space stations, like the Toward Star Inn and Blue Heaven, were created to accommodate people during the long periods of time experienced between space travel.

Blue Heaven, in particular, created an environment wherein violence between the Space Forces, outlaws and space pirates was prohibited --- primarily due to the dangers of firing weapons in a fragile structure vulnerable to the dangers of space --- and thus named a "free town".[9] With the aid of dragonite, space races such as the Heifong Space Race increased in popularity the more common faster-than-light-travel became.[10]

Poverty and financial strife within struggling colonies on the outskirts of the frontier worlds were more likely to be targeted by pirates and thieves. As a result, private corporations established private security that was, in some cases, more affordable for the less fortunate.[11] However, there were those who profited on the the disadvantageous of poor colonists and charged for their protection and looked down on individuals who provided free protection.[12]

Species from different planets and systems appear to be able to mingle with humankind without major conflict, though there are still instances of prejudice aimed toward beings created by man, such as bio androids (born of organic and machine elements) and the Saurians, lizard men created from the genes of the dinosaurs.[13][11]

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